


Damaged Wings

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Getting Together, Group Therapy, Past Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Past Torture, Permanent Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27252667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Natasha and Tony don't get together because they're both superheroes; they get together because they're in the same support group for people with permanent wing damage.
Relationships: Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 66
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	Damaged Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Damaged Wings  
> Collaborator: camichats  
> Card Number: 4049  
> Square Filled: S1-Natasha Romanov/Black Widow  
> Main Pairing: Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark  
> Rating: Teen  
> Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: Mentions of torture, Trauma related to wing damage  
> Summary: Natasha and Tony don't get together because they're both superheroes; they get together because they're in the same support group for people with permanent wing damage.  
> Word Count: 2,931

"Tony," Pepper said, not really wanting to broach the topic but knowing that she needed to, "what is this?" 

"Hm?" he asked. He looked at the schematic she was holding, then shook his head, turning back to what was on the table in front of him. "Old plans. Trash it." 

Pepper looked back down at the design, confirming that it was what she remembered picking up. "This is to cover your wings so you can fly again." 

"Yeah, I know. Trash it." 

Pepper bit her lip, wings quivering behind her for a moment. "I thought you were getting better." 

Tony stilled. 

"You can fly again, Tony. I may not be an engineer, but I know these designs aren't so bad that they need to be thrown away. Whatever problem you've run into, I'm sure you can work it out." 

"I don't want to work it out," he said through clenched teeth. 

"I know that a lot has changed and in some ways your life will never get back to the way it used to be, but it's not healthy to-" 

"Don't," Tony said, cutting her off. He didn’t like doing that to Pepper; he respected her too much to not let her at least finish her sentences, but he wasn’t going to sit through this particular lecture. "I'm doing fine. I just don't want to replace my wings." 

"From the look of these, it wouldn't be a replacement; it would be an aid. There's nothing wrong with that." 

Tony bit back the automatic reply of 'how would you know'? He hadn't been getting a lot of sleep lately. He knew that there was a way to get what he needed, but he couldn't figure it out. Every time he tried to go to bed, he had another idea. He'd get up, work it out, then realize a couple days later that it was shit. The plan that Pepper was putting so much faith in was one of those failed attempts. "It's one of a dozen bad designs, Pep. I'm not giving up my chance for happiness or whatever the hell it is you're so worried about. Do you have any idea how many early designs get tossed? Hundreds." 

Besides, he wasn't going to supplement his wings. It worked for other people, but he couldn't do that. It wasn't a matter of getting used to it; it was about weight. Most people had wings that weighed as much or more than their arms. Tony's wings were a fraction of a percent of his total weight; his back couldn't handle that much stress without bringing up a myriad of other problems. That's why he wasn't looking at wing-like replacements anymore-- or ‘aids’ as Pepper had helpfully pointed out. Even a patch would weigh too much for him. 

* * *

"Why doesn't the Iron Man armor have wings?" a reporter asked. It was a valid question. Mostly people were thinking it. 

"Because it doesn't need them," was Tony's answer.

* * *

Natasha didn't have one of her wings. She'd left the Red Room and the KGB behind, but before she'd joined up with Shield, they'd captured her. The people who'd caught her hadn't really decided what they were going to do with her, but they agreed that they couldn't allow her to escape. Standard operating procedure for prisoners who were captured and never going to return to society again, was to either clip their wings or tear one of them off depending on how much it was supposed to hurt. 

They opted to cut one of hers off. It hadn't stopped her from escaping, but that was because they'd let their guards down after doing it, thinking that she would be too weak to try anything. She'd killed them. 

Her wings had always been rather large. Massive, thick with feathers. Natasha had layers of feathers that most people didn't. There was a slight overlap most people had from the way their feathers were tiered, but hers weren't like that. Two or three layers thick, and _then_ they were tiered. It used to be that she could pull them around herself and completely hide the rest of her body from view. She couldn't do that anymore. With one wing, she could still cover most of herself, from one direction, but it wasn't the same. 

Tony's wings were different. They were so vastly different that she almost didn't understand how they worked. Rather, she didn't understand how they could've worked when they were capable of it. Like her, Tony couldn't fly anymore. He had paper-thin butterfly wings and ragged tears through parts of them that made flying impossible. 

She could get her one wing mostly out of the way when she needed to, but Tony could scrunch his up so tightly that it was like the ceased to exist-- it's how he fit in the Iron Man suit. 

There were prosthetic wings out there. Hell, Stark Industries made some of them. Tony was... exceptional. He hadn't adapted the existing design for his wings, he'd come up with an entirely new way to fly. She admired him for it, and she was pretty sure he knew that. It wasn't the sort of thing she could come out and say, but Tony was perceptive. 

They didn't even meet as superheroes. That would've made it easier. She complimented other supers all the time. No, they met at a support group for people with wing damage. Once a week, they would all get together in a community room, looking like the world's most lopsided people in the world. Tony was the only one with butterfly wings. Jim was another person with thin wings though-- his were nearly transparent-- and it looked as though someone had punched through one of them. Some of the people that attended had prosthetics. Others couldn't get prosthetics because they were like Tony and Jim: damaged but not removed. There were a lot of war veterans that attended since clipping wings was normally the first thing that happened when someone was captured. There was only one other person like Natasha that came, who was missing an entire wing, could get a prosthetic wing, and chose not to. The Winter Soldier. She wondered if Tony recognized him without the mask. Probably not. He looked completely different when he wasn't dressed as a super. _She_ sure as hell wasn't going to say anything. 

So far, Tony hadn't said anything to her to give away that he knew she was Black Widow-- same as she hadn't said anything about him being Iron Man even though every single person in the group knew that one-- but how many people had her style of wings? And how many of them only had one? Besides, her mask was a flimsy, barely there thing, more so that she'd fit in with the rest of the supers than to actually cover her face. Hawkeye's was the same. Working for Shield didn't allow them for a great amount of privacy, not like the full coverage that Spiderman got from working alone. 

It was therefore rather surprising to her when Iron Man approached her one day and said, "I can build you a prosthetic wing if you want. I promise not to mess with it, if that's what Shield is so afraid of." 

She looked up at him-- Tony was already taller than her, but in the suit, the faceplate was another few inches higher-- and on top of that, her mask covered a small portion of the top of her vision. "Shield isn't preventing me from getting a prosthetic." 

"Then what is?" 

"I don't want one." 

The faceplate was impossible to read. She liked it. She didn't have to watch his expression and work off of it. She didn't have to analyze what his posture indicated because with the way that the suit was constructed, it was impossible. "Winter Soldier said the same thing. He told me I shouldn't bother asking you because your answer would be the same as his." 

Her and Yasha didn't talk anymore. Not now that he was more Bucky than Yasha. They didn't really fit anymore. Maybe it was him, maybe it was her. More likely, they couldn't get along when they were both living for themselves instead of the people controlling them. 

She knew that it would be nice to fly again, but any time she thought about getting a prosthetic wing, there was a discomfort she couldn't shake. She was happy with her one wing; it felt more like her than having both wings ever had. 

"Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me." 

"You've never asked me in group," she said before he could move to leave. 

"It's supposed to be an anonymous group. I didn't think it counted as very anonymous if I walked up to you guys and offered." 

The corners of Natasha's mouth tilted up. So he did know that it was Bucky. "I suppose not." 

He turned, took one step, then paused when she spoke again. 

"You want to get coffee tomorrow? After group. As two normal people." 

He turned back to look at her. All she could see from this angle was one glowing eyeslit. He was probably confused, though. Black Widow didn't date; she didn't have time for romance. That's what everyone said. 

"It can be a date. It can be two people spending time together." She wanted to say that it didn't matter to her either way, but it did. Tony struck her as the sort of person that could tell when she was lying. "I'm good with either." 

"It's been a while since I've been on a date." 

She smirked. "Don't worry, I'm not expecting the full Tony Stark treatment. It's just coffee." 

"Every date is the full Tony Stark treatment if I actually show up." 

"You know what I mean." 

"Yeah." He turned, tossing a wave over his shoulder. It was almost a silly gesture with the armor. The repulsors on the hands were weapons, but it was harmless in this setting, the light in the palm staying at a steady glow instead of getting brighter as he wiggled his fingers. "See you tomorrow." 

* * *

Natasha didn't talk in group, not really. She shared once or twice, but it was always short-- Bucky rarely talked, and it was never to say what he was feeling. Tony talked about as much as the others. It wasn't exactly a book club, so even for the people that shared every meeting, it was halting. 

"I just want people to stop staring," Jim said. "I miss flying sometimes, but that's the part that bothers me most. Like, if my wings were clipped or something, I wouldn't be able to fly and that would suck ass, but at least people wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at me. They always want to ask, but they don't know if they should or not. So they end up staring at me until I walk away." 

Tilly, who led the group, nodded. "It can be tough, living with it. Does anyone have something they'd like to add?" she asked, looking around. Sometimes they shared experiences, and there was comfort in knowing you weren't alone out there. 

"Maybe they aren't staring as much as you think," Tony said. "I know when I got back, I felt like it's all anyone could look at. Maybe it was, but I was... paranoid." He was much more deliberate about his words in group than he ever was as Iron Man. "Someone would look at the wall behind me, and I was convinced that they were judging me. I just mean- maybe you're not actually drawing as much attention as you think." 

Tilly nodded again. She did a lot of that to let people know that she was listening and was interested in what they were saying. It was a sound tactic. Natasha mostly sat slumped in her chair, her one wing over the back of it and sprawled out; she wasn't here to work, so it wasn't her responsibility to be a good listener. "Maybe listing the things or other people around you might help. If nothing else, it'll help get your mind off of it." 

"I'll think about it," Jim said. 

"Good," Tilly said with an encouraging smile. She glanced at the clock. "We're almost up on our time today. Was there anything else anyone needed to say?" She looked around the room, mostly getting unmoving bodies, but a few people shook their heads in response. "It was good to see everyone today," she said, getting to her feet. She'd had the end of one wing cut off in a car accident, so she had a partial prosthetic-- nice and basic, just to fill the space where she needed it. It was only visible when she was standing. "Remember that you're not alone out there, and I'll see you next week." 

Bucky was the first out the door like he always was. 

Natasha normally beat a hasty retreat as well, but this time she lingered, waiting for Tony to finish talking to Jim. It didn't even take a full minute. Tony said something to him, Jim nodded, Tony said something else and touched his arm, then they both smiled. "What was that about?" she asked when Tony joined her and they left the meeting room. 

"You're so nosy," he teased with a smirk. 

"I didn't become a spy because I liked minding my own business." 

"I was offering him a patch for his wing. It's not enough to let him fly again, but it should blend in with the rest of his wing." 

"What happened to not breaking the anonymous part of the meeting?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Not that she was judging. 

"Well that was after the meeting, it doesn't count then." 

Natasha snorted. 

"So, where's the closest cafe?" 

"You mean you don't know? I thought it was a superpower that you always knew where the closest source of coffee was." 

"The closest source of coffee was in that room," Tony said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. "No further research required since I normally head straight back home." 

"Ah. In that case, it's one block this way," she said, turning left when they got out on the street. She walked so that he was on the side that didn't have a wing. She offered her arm, and Tony looped his through hers with a grin. 

"You're out here, ruining your street cred." 

"I have street cred?" Natasha asked. 

"Hell yeah. You're the Black Widow. Everyone's afraid of you, but now you're grinning like a loon as you walk arm in arm with the biggest disaster of a superhero to exist." 

"If you think you're the biggest disaster of a superhero, clearly you've never spent time with Hawkeye." 

"He does fall into dumpsters a lot," Tony mused. "Second biggest then." 

"Hm, well after Hawkeye would be Daredevil. Did you know he's a lawyer? He shows up in court with a face full of bruises." 

"Sounds like Daredevil. Third biggest?" 

"Well now you're just trying to get a list of everyone you're better than. You can do that on your own time, not on our date." 

"Does it count as a date if we're not in the cafe yet?" 

"As you pointed out, we're walking arm in arm," Natasha said dryly. "The date has started." 

"Damn, and here I planned on making a better first impression." 

"This is hardly the first time we've met." 

"Yeah. Have you ever thought about actually going blonde?" 

She gave him a flat look. 

"I'm just saying, that was a good look for you." 

"You liked the curls, not the color." And her hair was easier to curl when it was dyed, so she'd needed a color other than red. Blonde worked better on Tony than brunette, so she'd been a blonde when they first met-- ostensibly with her as someone working in SI, though that cover hadn't lasted long at all. She hadn't been meant to really attract his attention, just gauge it. "You know what you're going to get?" she asked, talking about the coffee shop. 

"Probably coffee." 

She elbowed him lightly. 

"I dunno. Something decaf." 

"I thought you were allergic to decaf. Aren't you always mainlining caffeine?" 

"Is that what my Shield dossier says?" 

"Something like that," Natasha said noncommittally. They both knew that Tony knew exactly what his Shield file said about him. "How do you get all of your work done if you're not drinking regular-caf coffee?" 

He shrugged with the shoulder that wasn't right next to her so that it didn't disrupt the rhythm they had. "Can't sleep most nights," he admitted. He didn't need to add that coffee would make it even more impossible to get to sleep because she knew that. 

"Maybe you should order warm milk." 

"And cut our date short? I wouldn't-" 

There was a loud crash, the sort that signaled a villain attack in the works. They both sighed. "Raincheck?" Natasha asked, reaching into her jacket for her mask. 

Tony shifted his wrist, calling for the Iron Man armor. She hoped she was around to see it form around him because it was always something to behold. "Maybe after the fight's done?" 

"Assuming it's a quick one," she agreed. 

"Then let's hope it's a quick one," he said, letting go of her so she could get her mask situated. She gave him a quick smile, more Black Widow leaking into it than had been in the rest of their conversation. 


End file.
